And just to cap it all off, Paul Manafort has sued Mueller for investigating other potential crimes he's discovered in the course of his investigation of Manafort's potential crimes as part of the Trump campaign.

What struck me was the speed and manner with which the Putin propaganda machine reacted to this. Feeding directly into the alt world memes of how it’s all really the fault of liberals. They clearly keep a close watch on that sector of US political opinion and play into with considerable skill.

RT backing up the nonsense of

The irony of Bannon’s newfound acceptance by Russia-obsessed liberals is not lost on all commentators.

The only problem with all of this is that Trump has been fairly ineffective so far, other than passing that disgusting tax bill, and signing executive orders for things like slicing up national parks and denying climate change at a rate 80% greater than Obama's.

If he gets the boot and Pence becomes President, there will be a more dangerous and intelligent man holding the reins of power. Although I suppose he's less likely to kick off a nuclear war with Korea due to a dick-measuring contest.

He could be suing Bannon for good-old-fashioned defamation. Frankly, I can't see how he can avoid suing in these circumstances, either. Allowing the assertions to stand uncontested would also seem like an admission of guilt.

Russsian State propaganda is doing its best to discredit the current opposition protests in Iran. Their line is much the same as what was used in Syria - there is no moderate opposition and it’s all instigated by the US.

They would, and did, say much the same if Obama was in office but Trump really has squandered a great deal of moral authority making such allegations harder to counter. Tragically it will most likely be non-Americans that pay the highest price for his narcissism.

Trump has been fairly ineffective so far, other than passing that disgusting tax bill, and signing executive orders for things like slicing up national parks and denying climate change at a rate 80% greater than Obama's.

For example, Matthew Petersen, who was nominated to fill the empty seat in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

And if the grand jury returns an indictment against Donald Trump, Jared Kushner or any of the people being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller’s FBI investigation, that case will be heard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. What. A. Coincidence.

Here he is being quizzed on his qualifications for the job in question:

White House comms staff urged everyone to grant access to Wolff because they thought “this was going to be a positive book for the President.”

These people are spectacularly stupid.

"Fire and Fury" sold out within minutes of going on sale at midnight, this story isn't going away anytime soon. Henry Holt and Co. presumably made sure the book was run past every lawyer they could find before publication, so I doubt legal action has any legs.

I have been watching some of the fallout gleefully described by Cenk Uygur -

The right is going to swing behind Trump, after all he is in the White House.

The response of the right never ceases to fascinate me. When Trump twitter trolled last week about climate change (for Christ's sake, the president of the USA trolling on twitter, WTF is wrong with these people??) I watched some infowars videos to try and understand. The politics of it - beginning, middle and end - was as shallow as a puddle. It consisted of jeuvenile gloating that the "snowflakes" had been "triggered" and the "SJWs" were whining HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Thats it. That is their agenda. They drill because it upsets environmentalists. They deregulate because it punishes minorities. That it all plays into the hands of corporations is tangential, excepting that it gives them the billionaire donors they need to survive.

They don't actually have a policy agenda, beyond vindictively dismantling anything their (extensive) 'enemies" have created. It is a very scary form of in-group nihilism.

Then there is this piece from Wolff's book, also from TYT:

Watching it I felt physically sick. What a guy that Trump is. He transcends norms of decency.

Yes indeed, but if the car is the USA who will have the ability to fix the nation which is so divided and dysfunctional at its highest level?It's not Trump, in fact he can be viewed as a symptom of what is ailing the US.The " city on a shining hill" is starting to look like a shit can.The US political system needs some serious attention however I don't see how these will be addressed in a satisfactory manner. I hope that the post Trump America takes a good long soul searching look at itself.I fear that it's teetering on the edge of a very dark fall.

Yes indeed, but if the car is the USA who will have the ability to fix the nation which is so divided and dysfunctional at its highest level?It's not Trump, in fact he can be viewed as a symptom of what is ailing the US.The " city on a shining hill" is starting to look like a shit can.The US political system needs some serious attention however I don't see how these will be addressed in a satisfactory manner. I hope that the post Trump America takes a good long soul searching look at itself.I fear that it's teetering on the edge of a very dark fall.

The downgrade was not a consequence of Donald Trump, states the report. Rather, it was caused by the same factors that led Mr Trump to the White House: a continued erosion of trust in government and elected officials, which the index measures using data from global surveys. In total, it incorporates 60 indicators across five broad categories: electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, political participation, democratic political culture and civil liberties.

The political movement originally established to end slavery in the United States is dying. US Christians - who make up a substantial fraction of US conservatives - should reject the increasingly stark corruption of the modern Republican Party.

Trump's presidency could scarcely have been scripted to be more corrosive and inane.